Today marks the online launch of the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) at Poynter. This informal network, a forum for fact-checkers from five continents, is born out of the desire to study and discuss fact-checking as a journalistic instrument worldwide.

The IFCN is supported by grants from the Omidyar Network and the National Endowment for Democracy.

2. Measuring the impact of fact-checkers. There is no doubt that fact-checkers are having an impact worldwide, in terms of obtaining retractions and correcting misperceptions. Nonetheless, much remains to be done on systemically measuring this impact, as discussed here.

3. Funding fact-checking. As with other journalists, fact-checkers operate in an industry still figuring out its new business model. Nineteen out of the twenty-nine fact-checking organizations surveyed in June funded 75% or more of their work thanks to grant-giving Foundations. Fact-checkers are aware of the need to diversify their sources of funding. Chequeado, FullFact, PolitiFact and FactsCan were among the fact-checkers who ran successful crowdfunding campaigns this year. Pagella Politica* is developing a freemium tool (‘TrovaDato’) to monetize on fact-checkers’ capacity to distinguish reliable data from suspect data, and help journalists obtain rapid access to the former in exportable formats. The IFCN will monitor and analyse new sources of revenue both potential and actual.

4. The ethics of fact-checking. As a confrontational art, which uses (often colourful) terms to tell public figures they are being untruthful, fact-checking is rife with ethical dilemmas. Fact-checkers must also be sure to conduct their work in a manner that avoids the backfire effect and bridges the partisan divide.

The IFCN will therefore study in depth fact-checking as a form of "reported conclusion journalism", as Bill Adair, creator of PolitiFact and Knight Professor of Journalism and Public Policy at Duke University, has dubbed it. But is not aimed solely at practitioners.

The work of fact-checking organizations – their breakthroughs and their failures alike – will provide useful lessons for all those who believe that few challenges in media are as crucial as disseminating information that is reliable and truthful.

*Full disclosure: I was Managing Editor of Pagella Politica before joining Poynter and I remain on the board of that editorial project. I don’t intend for this fact to affect my coverage in any way, but I will specify it for transparency purposes any time I cover the Italian fact-checkers on this site.

Alexios Mantzarlis joined Poynter to lead the International Fact-Checking Network in September of 2015. In this capacity he writes about and advocates for fact-checking. He also trains and convenes fact-checkers around the world.